


Remnants

by meyari



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Angst, Ghosts, M/M, Murder, Unhappy Ending, Vampires, cremation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-02
Updated: 2011-04-02
Packaged: 2017-10-17 11:52:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After our Jason continued onwards in his efforts to get back home, the vampire Tim that he left behind succeeded in eliminating his Jason, for the most part.  After that it was only a matter of cleaning up Gotham, however his efforts to 'save' Gotham weren't well received by the remaining member of the Bat family.  Dick returns to Gotham to stop Tim's killing rampage, no matter what it takes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remnants

**Author's Note:**

> This is associated with my series Left Behind But Not For Long, set in the world with Vampire Tim. This is what happened after our Jason left.
> 
> Please note that this only has a happy ending if you squint at it right. This is one of my few non-happy ending stories, so please be aware of that before reading.

"You know I didn't want to do it, right? I didn't want to bring that asshole in here. I couldn't stop myself. He was controlling me. You do know that, right?"

Tim ignored Jason's plea as he dumped his latest victim in the pile of bodies littering the cave. He'd almost gotten the incinerator ready so soon he wouldn't have to deal with the stench of the dead surrounding him constantly. Even as a vampire, however reluctant, the smell of death could be overwhelming at times.

"You're ignoring me again," Jason sighed. "I'm not going to go away, Timmy."

"I hate it when you call me that," Tim grumbled without much heat. He hated it but not as much as he used to. Jason was dead by his fangs, after all.

"I know," Jason said and shrugged. "Can't help it. I'm dead and you're the only person who sees me, who sees any of us. At least when I call you Timmy you stop ignoring me."

Tim glared at him to no effect and went back to work on the incinerator. The Joker was laughing with the Penguin as they tormented the souls of Tim's other victims. They were no better in death than they had been in life. If anything, they were worse now that they weren't physical. No matter how bad they got Tim didn't acknowledge them. He knew he'd get no peace if he did. It was bad enough dealing with the ghostly remnants of his former family.

Bruce lurked off in a dark corner, cradling Damian who seemed to have gone catatonic again. Damian's reaction to death had been peculiar. Half the time he was manic and determined to find a way to kill Tim even though he was insubstantial. The other half of the time he retreated inside of himself to hide from what had happened to the world and his family. Bruce had yet to speak but he constantly watched Tim. He'd been doing it since he died, long before Tim became a vampire.

It would have been a relief if the ability to see ghosts had died with his humanity. Unfortunately, Tim's 'gift' had gotten stronger since his transition into undeath. Before, ghosts were simply voices and feelings in the air. Now he could see and hear them as clearly as anything physical, though the difference between the living, the undead and the dead remained crystal clear to him. Tim was relieved about that. He'd hate to think that he'd lost his mind when he lost his life. It was bad enough that he'd lost his convictions about killing, though truthfully he didn't regret that too much. Gotham was far better off than it had been before he'd started killing the villains for food.

"Ah, you might want to pay attention, Timmy," Jason said. "That's not where that fitting goes."

"If you're expecting thanks, you're going to be disappointed," Tim said, nodding that Jason was right. He certainly didn't want to destroy the manor and the caves and putting the gas straight into the firebox would cause… issues. He might have difficulty surviving the explosion, even with all the feeding he'd been doing.

"I do wonder why you haven't sent the others away," Jason commented. He was hovering in space as if lying on his back on the ground. "You can, you know. You always did before, didn't you? Before all this shit happened, you were the one who cleaned the ghosts away and kept them from haunting us, right?"

Tim shrugged, finally completing his work on the incinerator. It would take several hours to heat up and he would want to make sure that the smokestack scrubber removed all of the soot and scent if he didn't want the authorities to find him here. Either way, very soon the bodies would be gone. That would be a relief.

"It hasn't worked," Tim said with a glare at Jason. "If it had, you'd be gone."

"You can't send me away, Tim," Jason said with a wry smile that looked painfully sad. "The others, sure. Don't know about Bruce and Damian but those assholes? Yeah, you can send them onwards."

"Why not you?" Tim asked.

After a long moment of silence, Jason admitted, "I'm tied to you. I've been tied to you for a long time. I can't move on until you do."

Tim sighed and rubbed his forehead. He looked at Jason more closely, frowning at the thin silver braid that led from Jason to Tim's wrist. Bruce seemed to be tied to the cave itself, while Damian was tied to Bruce. He hadn't wanted to see that Jason was bound to him, by their lives, by their undeaths, by Jason's final death at Tim's hands and fangs.

He turned to the Joker and Penguin, concentrating in the way he used to before he'd transitioned to unlife. They stiffened and then wailed as they were dragged down into the ground by fiery hands with claws and red scales. When they didn't return, Tim proceeded to clean out the rest of the ghosts, other than Bruce and Damian. Bruce's ghost smiled his millimeter smile when Tim bypassed them.

"That's a lot better," Jason commented once Tim was done. "You going to get the bodies too?"

"Of course," Tim said. "All of them."

"Even Damian's?"

"He's dead," Tim said without the slightest tinge of guilt. "He doesn't need his body anymore. It's more efficient to incinerate it than to take the time to bury it."

"So cold," Jason sighed.

"I'm dead," Tim said and shrugged. "What do you expect?"

"No, I'm dead," Jason countered. "You're a vampire. There's a difference."

"No heartbeat and no conscience," Tim replied as he checked the incinerator's temperature and nodded that it was ready. "That's the definition of dead as far as I'm concerned."

He started carrying bodies over and tossing them into the incinerator. Jason stopped hovering by Tim and hovered over Damian's broken little body as if he could protect it from being thrown into the incinerator. It took nearly until dawn for Tim to get rid of all the bodies other than Damian's. He stopped in front of Damian's body, staring at Jason sternly.

"He should be buried, Tim," Jason said so quietly that it was almost lost in the chattering of the bats overhead.

"Why?" Tim demanded. "He's dead. It doesn't matter what happens to his body. He's not using it anymore."

Jason's eyes were dark and solemn. It wasn't an expression that Tim had ever seen on Jason's face when he was alive. The look was too sane, too serious for the Jason that Tim had known. Bruce stood behind Jason, looking at Tim with the same grave expression. Damian was clinging to Bruce's cape, his eyes wide with fear.

"I can't believe I'm letting you bully me," Tim sighed. "Fine. I'll bury the body tomorrow. I'm going to sleep."

Tim spun and walked away. His sleeping place was hidden in the depths of the cave, so far away from light and life that it was comfortable for him. He could have slept upstairs in any of the beds that filled the manor but Tim didn't see the point. The manor was as empty as his heart. Better to stay in the darkness that was his new home. Besides, none of the ghosts followed him into the depths of the Cave. Here, and only here, he got the peace he'd been denied in death.

+++++

"This is insane," Roy hissed at Dick, his voice barely carrying to Dick's ears as they carefully stalked towards the manor, all the while scanning for any signs of Tim. "You know that we shouldn't be here."

"We have to help him," Dick hissed back. "You know he can't want this life, Roy. We have to help him!"

Roy's sigh said all the things he'd given up saying about Dick's blindness to Tim's transformation and the sheer unlikelihood of their being able to stop Tim's killing rampage. Dick knew that he was being a fool but he couldn't give up on his little brother. Other than Alfred and Roy, Tim was all that he had left. Bruce was dead. Damian had disappeared the same day that Tim had been turned into a vampire. Babs had been killed along with her Birds of Prey during the Vampiric war that followed Tim's transformation. Jason had died not too long after that at Tim's hand. Even the long-familiar villains of Gotham had disappeared one by one until the streets of Gotham were nearly as quiet as a normal city.

Despite that, the city still lived in fear. Everyone knew that criminals in Gotham died when they disappeared. They knew that at least one vampire still walked among them. After the open war for the city that Tim had waged against the other vampires, it wasn't surprising at all that everyone knew. For a while there had been open Vampiric combat on the streets as Tim waged a one-man war against the vampire who had enslaved Jason and turned him. From the reports Dick had gotten after the fact, Tim might have fed on every single one of the vampires he killed, which would have made him incredibly powerful despite his relatively recent transformation.

Dick didn't want to believe the reports he'd heard about Tim casually, calmly and efficiently killing not only other vampires and criminals but also random passers-by. Especially the passers-by. Tim wouldn't do that. He'd always protected the innocent in Gotham. There was no way that he would have fallen to the same level as the monsters he'd destroyed. Death couldn't have changed him that much.

No matter how many times Dick repeated the thought, he couldn't make himself to believe it.

There were too many unexplained disappearances in the dead of the night for Dick to be able to believe it. Hookers no longer stalked the streets at night. The pimps were all dead. Delivery drivers had long since stopped working after dark. Even the street kids were finding places inside with light to spend their nights. Despite all that, people disappeared every few nights. That was where Dick's determination to come to Gotham so that he could talk to Tim came from. He couldn't let this go on, no matter what the cost to himself.

When Dick had announced his determination to Alfred, Alfred hadn't said a word. His frown had said it for him. The next day Roy had arrived with every weapon that might have an effect on a vampire. They'd spent several weeks working out plans, only to come back to the simplest one of entering the mansion and searching for Tim's hiding place. Despite his hope that Tim could be argued into a different path, Dick had several sorts of lethal weapons, a half dozen different spells carefully crafted by Zatanna, and a hollow place in his gut that told him he was being an unbelievable fool.

"Grounds look the same," Roy murmured.

"Overgrown, but that's no surprise," Dick agreed. "No one's been here since Alfred left."

They'd passed the wall around the grounds a while back and were slowly creeping their way towards the manor. The back gardens had grown up during their absence, not that they'd been especially well kept since Bruce's death. Dick detoured slightly as they headed for the building, passing by the graveyard that held Bruce's empty grave as well as the graves of Bruce's parents and other ancestors.

"There's…"

Dick nodded, his heart pounding in his throat. As one they went to the too-small grave next to Bruce's empty grave that had been dug in the last couple of days. The low stone set into the tall grass had two words sloppily carved on it: Damian Wayne. Roy cursed in a harsh whisper as he glared at the manor.

"Rest in peace, little brother," Dick murmured. He brushed a leaf off of the stone and stood.

"Dick, we shouldn't do this," Roy insisted. "Can't you see? This is a really bad idea. We shouldn't go in there, not the two of us. Let's go, grab some of the others, get a sizeable force together and then come back. He's strong and totally amoral now. We can't do this alone."

"He buried Damian," Dick said, pointing a finger at the gravestone. "He didn't abandon his body or dump it in the ocean or whatever it is he's done with the other bodies, Roy. He _buried_ Damian and gave him a headstone. That's not the act of someone lost to humanity."

"For all you know he's buried all of his victims," Roy said. He grasped Dick's arm to keep him from heading towards the mansion. "Come on, you know better than this. This is insane, Dick. Let's get help and then come back. We'll stop him, just not right now."

"They'll kill him," Dick insisted as he always did when Roy tried to talk him out of confronting Tim. "I have to try, Roy. I have to!"

Roy sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. The look he gave Dick said more clearly than words just how frustrated he was. He shook his head and threw up his hands before gesturing for Dick to lead the way. Dick tried to smile at him but it came out wrong, twisting his face into a grimace that he was sure showed his nerves far too clearly.

The slow creep towards the manor twisted Dick's stomach into ever-tighter knots. There were no more graves. He was trying not to think about the estimated death toll, of the hundreds of lives that Tim had ended. There should have been graves or at least some sign of what he did with the bodies. Instead there was undisturbed soil covered by grass growing high enough to nearly cover their advance on the manor.

"I wonder what he did with the bodies," Roy mused as they reached the back door to the kitchen. "There's no sign of them."

Dick shook his head and shrugged shoulders that felt like they were made of steel, not flesh and blood. He couldn't find an answer to the question that wouldn't mean admitting that this was a stupid idea. The only thing that Dick was sure of by this point was that Tim hadn't turned anyone. If there had been two vampires they would have know, especially with Superman's careful monitoring of the city during the nights. No matter what powers Tim had now, his fangs couldn't penetrate Superman's skin.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Dick and Roy.

+++++

"Why did you kill everyone?" Jason asked. He was floating near the ceiling of the cave this time, resting among the bats that still haunted the caves' upper reaches.

"The criminals?" Tim asked.

"No, not just them," Jason said. "The vamps and the criminals and those other people you fed from lately. You didn't actually need to kill that boy last night. You could have let him live."

Tim turned away from the computer monitors to study Jason. The casual float was anything but casual. He could see how tense Jason was in the tight grip of his hands around the back of his neck and while his leg was crossed over one knee as if he was lying on the back, his foot jerked rhythmically.

"He was molesting his little sister," Tim explained while narrowing his eyes at Jason. "She's six years old."

Jason's foot froze for a long moment. He rolled over onto his side to stare down at Tim, frowning at him. Tim waited for whatever Jason had to say. It wouldn't change his methodology or his intent to kill those he found unworthy of continuing to live. There simply wasn't any way for Tim to keep Jason from offering his opinions, however unwelcome, whenever he wanted to. No exorcism worked on Jason.

"But he was only fourteen," Jason said. His voice was sad and low, his expression troubled.

"He was a child molester," Tim said and shrugged. "His age was irrelevant."

"I wish that your compassion had survived the transition," Jason sighed.

"Please," Tim said scornfully. "I'm a vampire. Killing is what I do. You should be grateful I'm restricting myself to people who commit crimes instead of anyone who comes across my path."

"How long before that happens?" Jason asked.

Tim turned away from him and back to the monitors that showed Gotham City's nightlife. Far fewer people were out tonight than he was used to when he was alive. Jason appeared to consider that to be a problem but Tim considered it a sign of progress. Of course, that did make his hunting more difficult but Tim didn't care. Finding criminals to prey on wouldn't be a problem for several more years. If it did become too much of an issue he'd simply expand his hunting to Bludhaven or Metropolis.

He already knew that Superman couldn't resist has mental powers. Tim had proven that a couple of nights ago when he'd sent Superman on his way without remembering that he'd encountered Tim.

+++++

"This is creepy," Roy murmured as they crept through the ground floor of the manor.

It was creepy because it was so normal. The furniture was covered with white sheets. Paintings had been covered as well. The long carpets that had cushioned the long marble hallways had been systematically rolled up and put away so that they wouldn't get dusty. Even the curtains looked normal, held open by their sashes rather than closed tight against the sunlight outside.

To Roy it seemed as if the family had gone away for a long trip, not that they were all dead other than Dick.

"I didn't think that Alfred had time to get the house closed up," Dick whispered. "Tim sent him away so abruptly. This… this isn't right, Roy."

Roy resisted the urge to roll his eyes and say 'duh'. After all their arguments about this fool's errand it really wasn't necessary. Dick already knew what Roy wanted to say. The sheer stupidity of this trip made him want to grab Dick and force him to leave but he knew Dick well enough to know that it wouldn't work. Once Roy let him go, Dick would be back here, searching for Tim alone.

"So damn creepy," Roy whispered as the weirdness of the place got to him.

It felt like there was something pressing against his mind, flitting about the edges of his awareness. The charms that they'd been given should have protected him from Tim's Vampiric mind powers but Roy had to wonder if they were working. There was something in the shadows, in the corners of the rooms. Every so often he would see something out of the corner of his eyes that looked like a person but when he whipped his head around there was no one there. The dust on the floor wasn't even disturbed.

Dick's head whipped around at the same time as Roy's did.

Roy's heart pounded in his chest as they stared at the spot on the wall that hid one of the secret passages down to the Cave. He could see Dick trembling so Roy reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. The contact made Dick start and stare at him with eyes full of terror.

"I thought I saw Damian," Dick whispered.

"I thought I saw Bruce a little while ago." Roy met Dick's eyes, pretty sure that the fear and worry on Dick's face was echoed on his.

"Let's try the cave," Dick said after far too long a moment of hesitation. "He's obviously not up here."

"Damn it, Dick," Roy snapped far more loudly than he should have given what they were hunting. "We should go get help! Let's leave, get out of here and get some others. You know that Kon would help. He wouldn't kill Tim out of hand. Clark doesn't kill either. There are heroes we can go to who'll help us do this. This is stupid!"

Dick pulled away from Roy, glaring at him though there was more worry and pain in his expression than anger. There was another flicker of motion that couldn't be there in the corner of Roy's eye. He didn't look at it and somehow that helped him see what it was. Batman loomed in one corner, just barely visible in the shadows. He looked as if he agreed with Roy.

"I can't," Dick said for the millionth time. "Roy, I can't leave Tim this way. I have to see him for myself. I have to be sure. I can't let this go on and I won't risk his life by bringing anyone else into it."

Roy let the frustrated curses rolling through his head spill out his mouth for a little while. He glared at Dick and stabbed a finger into Dick's chest. "Damn it, I'm not going any farther. We're getting out of here right now."

"Go on. Leave." Dick backed off so quickly and smoothly that Roy didn't have a chance to grab him. "I'm staying and I'm finding Tim whether you help me or not."

They stared at each other for a long moment. Dick's expression wasn't as challenging as it should have been. He looked as though he wanted to plead but didn't feel like he had the right to anymore. Roy saw another flicker out of the corner of his eye, this time looking a lot like Damian. To his shock, another form slowly shifted into visibility behind Dick.

It was Jason. He looked sad and worried as he gazed over Dick's shoulder at Roy. That worry was what made Roy start cursing in defeat. He knew it was a stupid idea to follow Dick into the Cave. There couldn't be anything more stupid than this, but he couldn't let Dick go down there alone. He'd be dead in an instant once he finally found Tim.

"Fine, you win," Roy sighed. "This is stupid but I won't let you go alone. I couldn't let you become another vamp, Dick."

"Thank you," Dick breathed. He turned around but Jason was already gone.

+++++

Tim stretched, listening with his enhanced senses before leaving his hiding place in the depths of the Cave. He doubted that anyone would invade the Manor to search for him but it was possible. Alfred and Dick were still out there, as well as more professional vampire hunters. Not that Tim was worried about any of them. He'd taken the powers of the older vampires he'd killed, draining their bodies and gaining strength with the consumption of their dark blood.

Jason said that he'd taken their dark souls when he'd done it but Tim knew better. His heart had been empty for a long, long time. Being Jack and Janet Drake's son had ensured that, though Bruce and being Robin had done a lot to lighten his spirit for years. Once he had become a vampire Tim had been unwilling to hide his emptiness anymore. Logic and hunger where his driving motivations now, unless and until someone angered him.

As Tim's senses extended beyond the Cave and up into the Manor, he froze. There were two heartbeats slowly working their way from the kitchen down towards the basement entry to the Cave.

"Fools," Tim growled.

He crawled out of his hiding place and went to mist so that he could return to the main part of the cave more quickly. None of the ghosts were there. For the first time since his death, Bruce wasn't in his spot in the Cave. That made Tim pause. The only reason that he could think of for Bruce to leave his self-appointed post would be to protect someone he cared about.

Tim listened and shook his head as he heard Dick's voice arguing with Roy. He should have known. Only Dick would be this stupidly optimistic after everything that Tim had done. Well, he was the only living person who would do this. Jason kept trying despite his constant failures.

"Don't kill them," Jason begged. He appeared in front of Tim, a desperate expression on his face. "Come on, Tim. It's Dick and Roy. They're not evil. They're good guys. You've never killed good guys before."

"They're invading my lair," Tim said as he leveled a flat glare at Jason.

"It's their lair too, or at least Dick's," Jason countered. "He was here way before you were."

"I hardly care about who has precedent," Tim snapped. "This is _my_ lair and they're _invading_ it."

Jason's desperate expression shifted into a hopeless, sick to his immaterial stomach, one. Tim knew that it should upset him to see this expression on Jason's face but it didn't. Nothing upset him anymore, other than the invasion into his territory. Dick knew perfectly well that he shouldn't be here. It was obvious that he knew he was transgressing. Roy's response to Dick's determined progress through the manor showed that he knew as well.

"Please, Tim…" Jason whispered. "Please…"

+++++

"Oh God."

Dick choked as saw the new addition to the Cave. The mortuary-quality incinerator sitting in the center of the cave where the Batmobile used to sit was clad in stainless steel and obviously very well used. A mound of ashes and bits of bone mixed with melted metal sat to one side of it, testimate to the number of people who had been disposed of inside of it.

His stomach tried to rebel against the image of Tim throwing his victim's bodies into the incinerator. Roy's hand steadied Dick. It wasn't enough. Nothing could ever be enough to deal with this. He'd hoped that Tim had done something better with his victims, buried them or treated them with respect. To see their ashes jumbled together next to what amounted to an industrial process for disposing of bodies was horrifying.

"We need to get the hell out of here, Dick," Roy whispered in the harshest tone that Dick had ever heard outside of the Batman. "Come on, even you can see that Tim's gone, can't you?"

"God," Dick moaned.

He shook his head at Roy's words. A cold chill swept over Dick. At the same time Roy's hand on his back shuddered as if he'd been hit by a frigid breeze. Dick turned to look at Roy just in time to see a flicker of movement. Jason was standing behind them, arms outspread as if to protect them from someone attacking. His mouth was moving as he shouted something that looked like pleading. Before Dick could figure out what Jason was saying there was a feral growl and a flash of movement. Roy's bow shattered, the string's snap sounding like tortured music in the darkness of the cave.

"Tim!" Dick shouted.

"You don't belong here," Tim said from the darkness. Dick had no idea where he was. It sounded like his voice was coming from everywhere around them. "The only reason you're still alive is that you're heroes, not criminals. Get out and don't come back."

"Tim, please," Dick begged. "I just want to talk to you."

Tim's mocking laughter echoed through the cave. It was like hearing Ra's al Ghul laugh, or the Joker, or any of the insane madmen that Dick had fought over the years. There was no light or humor in that laugh. Every jagged note of it was filled with blackness, anger and derision. Roy's hand landed on Dick's shoulder, nailing him into his spot so that he wouldn't randomly charge out into the cave to search for Tim.

"Please, Dick," Tim's voice said in a mocking echo of his own words. "I heard you and Roy arguing. You're not here to talk. You're here to kill me. So sorry, but I'm already dead. You can't kill me."

"You don't have to do this," Dick said, picking a shadow that didn't look any different from the other shadows simply because it made him better to have a place to focus on as he spoke than to keep looking around wildly. "Tim, you're one of us. You're a hero. I know that you're a vampire now but you don't need to kill. There are things that can be done, ways for you to feed without killing people. None of this is necessary."

Tim laughed again. "I am what I am, Dick. There is no going back for me, and no possibility of change. Everything you suggest will weaken me. If I feed less, I will have less strength, less power. The vampires in Gotham are gone but there are other vampires out there. They'll see it if I weaken myself and they will come after me. I will not allow that level of vulnerability, not when I have Gotham to protect. They would kill me and then drain Gotham dry."

"You call this protecting?" Roy snapped. "You're the one killing Gotham, Tim. This is worse than what the other vampires would do. You're slowly killing the city and driving everyone away!"

He pulled special wooden knives that Zatanna had spelled to be deadly to all vampires. Dick started to say something to Roy, to tell him to back off, but Tim was there. They both started, taking an involuntary step backwards. This wasn't the Tim that Dick had known. This person wasn't anything like him.

His skin was so pale, too pale for anything living. Tim's eyes were so intense that it was like they burned through Dick. He could feel the power of Tim's mind against his, despite the charms and spells that Zatanna had given them. Dick had just long enough to register that Tim's fingers had claw-like nails and that his fangs extended over his lip before Roy collapsed to his knees in front of time.

"T-Tim…!" Roy gasped, sounding as though he was being strangled. "Don't!"

Tim snorted and reached out to pluck the knives from Roy's hand. He tossed them into the incinerator to fuel the fires within. Dick tried to step forward, tried to make his mouth shape words but nothing came out. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't manage to force a single sound out of his throat.

Roy whimpered as Tim ran his fingers through his hair and then wrenched his head back so that his neck was exposed. Dick could see the terror in Roy's eyes. It was perfectly matched by the hunger in Tim's eyes. That hunger broke through Tim's control over Dick's mind, returning the ability to move and speak. He couldn't let Tim feed on Roy!

"Tim, don't!" Dick gasped. Getting the words out was like trying to talk underwater. "Don't feed on Roy! This was all my idea. Roy didn't want to come here, didn't want to do this. Don't take this out on him when it's my fault."

"I already knew that, Dick," Tim said. His fingernails dug into Roy's scalp, making a tiny trickle of blood flow through the bright hair. "I heard you coming. That hardly matters though. You invaded my lair and I can't allow that, no matter who you are."

Jason appeared again, his insubstantial hand wrapped around Tim's arm as if he wanted to pull Tim away from Roy. It was obvious to Dick that Jason had no ability to do it, but the inaudible words he snapped at Tim made Tim react anyway. Damian appeared for a second, his foot failing entirely to connect with Tim's head despite his perfect form. As the seconds crawled on and Tim growled at Jason's silent pleading, Damian flickered in and out of visibility as he attacked Tim. Bruce appeared with his hand resting on Tim's shoulder.

The three ghosts distracted Tim enough that Dick was finally able to force his body into motion. He grabbed Roy, wrenching him out from under Tim's hand. It felt like running through mud as he shoved Roy towards the stairs. The power of Tim's mind against Dick's was so overwhelming that he could barely breath. Roy was making tiny whimpering noises. His movements were so uncoordinated that he seemed to be sleepwalking.

Dick counted the steps left to escape, panting like a bellows from the exertion of fighting against Tim's control over them. Five, four, three, and then Tim was in front of them. The faint light from the top of the stairs made him into a menacing silhouette. Only his eyes were visible, glowing red in the darkness of the Cave. Roy stumbled and collapsed to the floor in front of Dick. His fall tripped Dick. As he fell Dick saw Damian, Bruce and Jason trying to struggle with Tim, who ignored them so utterly that they might as well not have been there.

"Hold him," Tim growled. Roy's arm latched around Dick's throat.

"Tim!" Dick gagged.

Dick struggled as much as he dared, as much as he could with Tim's mind pounding against his own. Nothing he did was effective. Roy didn't seem to feel pain and he'd managed to pin Dick completely when they tripped. Jason stood between them and Tim, holding Tim's shoulders while he silently begged Tim.

"Please…" Dick gasped around the bar of Roy's forearm. He tried to squirm and pull it away so that he could get more air but Roy compensated instantly. "Don't…do…this…Tim! Not…dark. One of… us!"

Tim laughed his dangerous, empty laugh and shook his head at Dick. "Oh Dick, you have no idea, do you? There is no darkness inside of me. There never was, no matter what certain people might have believed. There's no light, no dark, nothing at all. I'm empty inside. All there is within me is my hunger and the intellect that I've always had."

He snorted at Dick's shuddery whimper. The way he cocked his head let enough light fall on Tim's face so that Dick could see the almost wry smirk twisting Tim's lips. Roy's headlock loosened just enough that Dick could breathe better.

"No, you can't be," Dick protested once he could gasp enough air. "Tim, you're not that bad! Please, you can't do this to Gotham, even if you do it to us. You have to let us help. Gotham, think of Gotham!"

"I know that you've always been excessively emotional, Dick," Tim snorted, "but even you have to see that Gotham is better off for what I've done. Gotham is in better shape than it's ever been. Arkham is empty. The Joker's gone, along with the other villains Bruce used to battle. I've eradicated the vampires and other monsters hunting people in the city. The law abiding people of Gotham are free finally, free because of me."

"They're still terrified," Dick objected, drawing in another shuddery breath during a muscle spasm in Roy's arm that gave him a couple millimeters freedom. "They still live in fear, Tim, fear of you."

The accusation didn't do what Dick had expected. If it had been the Tim that Dick had thought of as his little brother, Tim would have flinched, backed away, reacted in some way. This Tim, who Dick finally had to admit wasn't really Tim anymore, only laughed and shook his head at Dick.

"They always felt fear, Dick," Tim said far too calmly. His voice had a honeyed tone that made it hard to Dick to keep struggling against Roy's grip. "They feel less fear than they did before. I can tell. I could tell before, though I never admitted it to Bruce or Jason. Or you. There were so many things you never knew about me, not that it matters one way or the other. Gotham is more secure under me than it ever was under Bruce and everyone knows it."

The softer tones of Tim's voice added to the pressure of his mind against Dick's. His arms drooped a little bit until he saw light glint off of the fangs protruding over Tim's lip. Dick shook his head hard, fighting against tears of rage and frustration. This wasn't his Tim. The serious little boy from the circus was truly gone and only a walking corpse with no conscience remained. Alfred and Roy had been right to tell him to stay away from Gotham.

"If you're truly convinced of that, why did you send Alfred away?" Dick demanded. "He would have supported you, even in this. He's stood by us all no matter what we've done, Tim. Why send him away?"

For the first time since his appearance out of the darkness shrouding the cave Tim flinched. The cold expression on Tim's face faded and was replaced by one that was so much more like the Tim that Dick used to know. He could see Tim-ish hesitation, worry, sorrow and need in the red eyes that glanced away from Dick, towards the stairs that he still blocked. Roy's arm loosened a little more, as if he was slowly battling his way back to freedom too.

"You didn't want to kill what was left of your family, did you?" Dick whispered.

Tim growled at him as the anger and coldness returned.

"Tim, the last thing I want to do is hurt you," Dick murmured. "You're my little brother. You're all I have left. Bruce is gone. Jason's dead. Damian, the little pill, is gone too. Steph's flown to better places and Babs, poor Babs. You're all I have of our family, Tim. I don't want to kill you. I want to save you."

"There's nothing left to save, Dick," Tim said. He shrugged liquidly, his shoulders moving as though his body was no longer made of flesh and blood. "I am what I am. Only true death will change that. I live solely to feed and protect Gotham."

Dick shook his head no, not willing to accept that answer. "How long until you start feeding on the good people, Tim? There can't be many villains left out there. Will you hunt in other cities? Or will you start feeding on the people who you claim you're protecting?"

Tim sighed and shook his head. He'd moved sometime during Dick's questions so that there was a little more light on his face now. Dick could see the tiny smile flitting around Tim's lips. It was so like the old ones that he used to tease out of Tim, but so unlike them at the same time. Too cold, too distant, too wistful, the smile spoke of terrible things.

"What makes you think I haven't already begun to do that, Dick?" Tim asked.

The question stabbed into Dick's heart as if Tim had literally run him through. Dick screamed and threw himself against Roy's arms, trying to break free. He had no idea what he was going to do but he had to get loose, had to stop Tim. There had to be _something_ that he could do to stop the monster that wore Tim Drake's body.

No matter how he battled, Dick couldn't break free. Roy's grip was unbreakable and he didn't seem to feel pain. Dick wasn't willing to use all the skills he'd learned as a crime fighter. He couldn't do that to Roy, poor Roy who'd been dragged into this completely unwilling. The only reason Roy was there was because Dick was too stubborn to admit what everyone else could see.

Once Dick's struggles subsided into panting whimpers, Tim stepped close and ran his fingers over Dick's chin. His fingers were cold, so very cold, as they trailed down his neck to the top of Dick's suit. This close the smell of blood and death was unmistakable. Dick realized that he'd been ignoring it, that his mind had been skipping over that smell since they got down into the Cave. Tim must have been forcing them not to notice it because that smell enveloped Dick as he leaned down and calmly opened the neck of Dick's suit and pushed it down so that Dick's shoulder was completely exposed.

Tim's expression was calmly confident despite the flickering of Jason, Bruce and Damian's ghosts around him. Dick struggled again until Tim's hand rested on his shoulder. As Tim touched him other voices became clear. Damian cursed in Arabic, English and French, calling Tim every name possible as he tried to kill Tim without success. Bruce murmured something low and dark about not wanting his last living son to die. Strangely it was Jason who came through the most clearly as Tim bent over and brushed his lips against Dick's shoulder, his lips feeling like ice cubes.

"Tim, please don't do this," Jason begged as he tried to tug Tim away from Dick and Roy. "Please. I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, this is all my fault. Please don't. Don't kill him, don't feed on him. You know you don't want to do this, Tim! Awww, come on, Timmy, don't ignore me now!"

"I'm sorry, Dick," Tim whispered. "You really should have listened to Roy."

Dick tried to buck but he couldn't get his body to work. Roy's arms were shaking around Dick as if he was desperately battling against Tim's powers and failing. Even as Tim's fangs slowly set themselves against his throat, Dick couldn't believe that Tim would do it. Tim wouldn't kill him. He couldn't!

The faintest pop of fang breaking skin resulted in a blaze of heat from Dick's right hand. Tim screamed as the ring that Zatanna had spelled to protect him from Tim's powers suddenly blazed with sunlight so brilliant that it was like being in the middle of the sun, much less standing outside at noon. Roy's arms abruptly relaxed. Dick fell backwards against him and they both slumped to the floor.

Dick raised his hand to the still screaming vampire who had been his adopted little brother. The ring flared even brighter, searing Tim's flesh and burning it away. It was like watching one of those old newsreels that showed things blown away by a nuclear explosion, except that the only one affected was Tim. All Dick felt was warmth and a sudden release from the fear and horror that had gripped his heart since the vampire wars that had overtaken Gotham. He closed his eyes, unable to watch Tim being destroyed, even with everything that he'd done and what he'd tried to do to Dick and Roy.

When he opened his eyes the cave was dark again. There was a small pile of ash where Tim had been standing. His clothes had been completely consumed but the soles of his boots peeked out from under the ash like grim footprints. For a long moment the only thing that Dick could hear was his and Roy's panting. The cave seemed to brighten after a long while. Four glowing figures slowly appeared above the pile of ash.

Tim, the old Tim, stood in the middle of the four ghosts. His expression was totally stunned. He stared down at the ash on the floor as if he couldn't believe that he'd finally been killed. Bruce stood behind him, on hand on Tim's shoulder. Damian glowered at Tim with his arms crossed over his chest from just over arm's reach away. Beside Tim, Jason stood and stared at him, concern on his face. Jason put a gentle hand on Tim's shoulder, the movement looking as though he couldn't quite believe it when his hand connected with Tim's shoulder.

Tim's expression crumpled and he put his face into his hands to sob.

"Oh Tim," Dick whispered.

He scrambled awkwardly to his feet and helped Roy up. Dick still couldn't hear Jason, Bruce or Damian, but Tim's heartbroken sobs were perfectly audible, though they sounded as though they were coming from a long ways away.

"It's okay, Tim," Dick said as soothingly as possible when his heart was breaking, his throat felt like he'd had an iron bar clamped over it and Tim was crying as if he'd never stop. "It's okay. It's over now and you can move on."

"No," Tim said in a whisper that was probably intended to be a normal voice. "It'll never be over. We're trapped here, Dick. Bruce is tied to the Cave and Damian's tied to him. Jason is tied to me and I can't leave this place. We're all trapped here."

"Fuck," Roy sighed.

He wrapped his arms around Dick, carefully thumbing away two tiny dribbles of moisture on Dick's neck that had to be blood. Dick automatically reached a hand out to Tim but once he realized that the ring had burned away his glove without harming his skin he pulled the hand back again. None of the ghosts of his family seemed to notice the gesture.

"We'll call Zatanna, Tim," Dick promised. "We'll find a way to free all four of you. There has to be a way for all of you to find peace."

Tim's face was stained with ghostly tears when he finally raised his face to meet Dick's eyes. The coldness and cruelty that had marked him as a vampire was gone. Tim looked more like the boy he'd been when he'd first become Robin, as if he'd regressed a few years in death. Dick didn't know if it was true and honestly didn't care. All he cared was that his brother was back. Killing him had been the right thing to do after all.

"I'm so sorry, Dick," Tim whispered. "So sorry. This is all my fault."

"No blaming yourself, little brother," Dick said. He pulled free from Roy's arms easily this time and stepped close as if to hug Tim. "It really is okay. You're back to yourself and that's what matters. What's done is done. We'll call Alfred back. Roy and I will protect Gotham for you, for all of you. And we'll find someone who can give you the peace that you need. I just hope that you'll forgive me for killing you."

Tim's breathless laugh was more of a sob. He nodded, tears trembling in his eyes again. He, Jason, Bruce and Damian began to fade away into the darkness again. The Cave blurred as tears welled up in Dick's eyes and then slowly crept down his cheeks. Bats squeaked overhead, flying around the upper reaches of the cave as they had for centuries. Roy put his hand on Dick's shoulder, making a little noise deep in his chest when Dick whirled and hugged him hard.

"I didn't want to kill him," Dick moaned. "I didn't want to kill him."

"I know," Roy murmured. "There wasn't any other choice."

"I know," Dick said sadly, his heart breaking at the injustice of it all. "I know. I just wanted to find another way, some other way. Any other way."

Roy sighed, his arms tight around Dick's back. "At least the killing is over and they'll be a peace soon. That's all that we could do."

Dick nodded, unable to say anything that wasn't a repeat of their arguments or what they'd already said. He would find a way to release his family's souls. He would protect Gotham as he'd promised, once the pain of losing them all one more time had faded and he could do something besides hold Roy and cry the tears they no longer could.


End file.
